Rich- could increased m.folate cause return of hypothyroid symptoms?

[suzanne]

[B
I firstly apologise for being persistent with my posts in the lat day- I am desperate to try and stop these rolling migraines again- and it is disressing to also have a return of my other hypothyroid ymptoms, which initiall seemed to be getting better.

I am at week 6 in the Fredd protocol and have had a significant return of previous hypothyroid symptoms- including muscle aches and pains, numb feet and migraines. These all seemed to be reasonably improved for weeks 2, 3 and 4 on the protocol. Then at week 4 I increased methyl folate from 800 to 1200mg a day and have been having increasing problems with symptoms since then.

Dan inculded a literature post that seemed to indicate that a deficiency in b12 could cause folate to exaccerbate symptoms. Perhaps this is what is happening- has anyone else experienced this or got any views on this?

In the absence of any better advice, I think I will go back to the old dose of 800 of folate and stay on the reently increased dose of 1000mcg of mb12 and try and see if I can improve again.

 

[richvank]

[B
I firstly apologise for being persistent with my posts in the lat day- I am desperate to try and stop these rolling migraines again- and it is disressing to also have a return of my other hypothyroid ymptoms, which initiall seemed to be getting better.

I am at week 6 in the Fredd protocol and have had a significant return of previous hypothyroid symptoms- including muscle aches and pains, numb feet and migraines. These all seemed to be reasonably improved for weeks 2, 3 and 4 on the protocol. Then at week 4 I increased methyl folate from 800 to 1200mg a day and have been having increasing problems with symptoms since then.

Dan inculded a literature post that seemed to indicate that a deficiency in b12 could cause folate to exaccerbate symptoms. Perhaps this is what is happening- has anyone else experienced this or got any views on this?

In the absence of any better advice, I think I will go back to the old dose of 800 of folate and stay on the reently increased dose of 1000mcg of mb12 and try and see if I can improve again.

Hi, Suzanne.

It's difficult to say for sure without running some tests, but I think it is possible that raising the methylfolate dosage, and taking it together with the methyl B12, overdrives your methionine synthase reaction, and does not leave enough homocysteine to enter the transsulfuration pathway to support the synthesis of glutathione. According to my hypothesis, Hashimoto's in ME/CFS is caused by glutathione depletion in the thyroid gland. This would seem to explain the results you have been experiencing.

If my hypothesis is correct, most PWMEs do not need to supplement with more than approximately the RDA for folate, which is 400 or 800 micrograms, depending on whether one is pregnant. Going higher than this supplies too much reactant to the methionine synthase reaction, in my opinion.

I realize that Freddd has a different view of this, but please bear in mind that Freddd appears to have some rather unusual genetic variations. It seems to be necessary for him to overdrive his methylation cycle in order to properly support his folate metabolism. I don't think this is the case for most PWMEs. The only way to be sure is to run some tests, as I have noted in previous posts.

I think your plan to drop back on the methylfolate to the dosage at which you were making progress is a good one. I hope it helps you.

Best regards,

Rich

 

[suzanne]

Hi Rich, thanks enormously for your input. You are very generous.

I have been on the dropped dow dose of methyl folate for a few days- went from 1200mcg down to 600mcg. So far, I am still getting the rolling migraines- perhaps it takes longer than a few days for the body to respond. I am also getting body pain- I am not sure if that might be due to the high dose of m folate or an increase in my m b12. Perhaps there is no point in trying to figure it all out.

I hope it gets to feel better than this beyond the 6 week point. I am trying hard to just hang in there.